South Park: "Guitar Queer-O"Review

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The boys discover Guitar Hero.

By Travis Fickett

When South Park takes on something like Guitar Hero, you can't help but wonder what they'll do with it. Just the picture of Stan and Kyle with the now famous guitar controllers was reason enough for high anticipation. Unfortunately, the episode lacks the punch it needed and relies on a fairly tired retread: the parody of a rock star's rise and fall. Didn't South Park already do this story? There's one moment in this episode where Randy sneaks downstairs in his underwear and tries to play Guitar Hero. After all, he can really play the guitar, so this shouldn't be so hard. He quickly learns that one has nothing to do with the other and gets booed off the virtual stage by the virtual crowd. It seemed that episode might be another Randy-centric one (always a good thing) - but this brief joke was just that. Instead, Charles Kincaid (the Partridge Family's manager) shows up wanting to manage Kyle and Stan because they broke 100,000 points on the game. The boys attend "coke and sex" parties that are attended by local Colorado celebrities (which, if they are real, is a joke lost on the rest of the country). The episode then continues to draw parallels to most rock and roll stories you've seen before, and it stretches them really damn thin.

Randy has a go at Guitar Hero.

First there's the new member of the band, Thad. Then Stan can't take the pressure, so he picks up "Heroin Hero" which is a game where you chase the dragon, but never catch it. See, because "chasing the dragon" is a slang for taking heroin. That's pretty much where that joke begins and ends. It's vaguely amusing that Kyle has taken to playing Guitar Hero at a machine in a seedy bar. People say things like "You're too kid to be playing this dump,' and other clichéd lines from dozens of movies (and shows) on the subject. But at this point, the joke has long stopped being funny and there aren't really any new ideas or jokes to be found. By the time we find out that Randy is addicted to "Heroin Hero" - it just falls flat. This is a lackluster episode, based on a concept that could have proved fun - but ultimately doesn't seem to be enough for an entire episode. Considering the show just did a terrific three-part story with "Imaginationland," I think fans can cut the show some slack if they have to recharge their batteries a little bit before getting back into top form.